Falling Chinese imports of copper have hit metal prices, leaving mining shares to drag the market lower.
Xstrata is down 14.5p at 1350.5p while Anglo American is off 16.5p at £29.72. Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation, which has been in the spotlight for a fractious boardroom dispute, is down 13p at 789p.
The latest Chinese trade data showed an unexpected drop in copper imports in May, although analysts said they may well pick up again in the current month.
On top of that the mining sector also faces a 30% mining tax in Australia, which the country's treasury said would be introduced in parliament in the next six months. The tax has been planned for more than a year but has been modified following protests from the likes of Rio Tinto, down 11.5p at £41.88 and BHP Billiton, off 2p at 2322.5p.
So after moving higher yesterday, the FTSE 100 is continuing its volatile run, down 10.08 points at 5846.26. Manoj Ladwa, senior trader at ETX Capital said:
So far this morning, the FTSE is struggling to build on yesterday's gains as a weak mining sector caps any upside. While traders have very little to pin their hat on, buyers seem to be resurfacing for Tesco and Sainsbury's ahead of their first quarter updates next week.
Tesco, up 3.4p at 413p, was also helped by a buy not from Jefferies:
Tesco trades at a discount of 10%/15% relative to its peer group (grocers/staples companies). This over-emphasises Tesco's mature UK retail profile, in our view, without rewarding the strong international prospects, industry leading structure, and sizeable property backing. We upgrade to buy, and raise our price target to 490p.
Elsewhere AstraZeneca lost 35.5p to £31.39 after analysts at BarCap cut its weight on the pharmaceutical group from overweight to underweight.
Elsewhere Kesa Electricals slipped 1p to 142.4p following reports it had put a number of Comet stores up for sale, while Home Retail dropped 5.4p to 169.1p in response to yesterday's figures.
